Patterico's Pontifications

11/10/2009

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

Filed under: International,Obama — DRJ @ 12:23 am



[Guest post by DRJ]

President Barack Obama made a surprise video appearance at the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall:

“In the message beamed into celebrations at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, once on the border between East and West Berlin, Obama told cheering crowds: “Even in the face of tyranny. People insisted that the world could change.”

“Even as we celebrate these values, even as we mark this day, we know the work of freedom is never finished.”
***
“Few would have foreseen … that a united Germany would be led by a woman from Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent. But human destiny is what human beings make of it,” Obama said.”

Reason.com’s Matt Welch notes Obama was introduced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:

“While watching the BBC’s live coverage of 20th anniversary events in Berlin, I found myself in that rare position of totally digging a Hillary Clinton speech, in which she gave good props to many of the most deserving actors in the toppling of communism … until she uncorked an excruciating segue: And now, she said, I have the pleasure to introduce a man who tore down different kinds of walls. Including walls of racial intolerance, etc.

Really?

President Obama, whose absence from the celebration is (in my biased opinion) a national embarrassment, then delivered a video message, in which he included among a string of who’da-thoughts the fact that a U.S. president was of African descent.”

Apparently the Administration believes even this historical event should be seen through the prism of Obama, but the fall of the Berlin Wall is not about Obama or his jaundiced view of America’s value to the world. Too bad he couldn’t just stay away.

— DRJ

50 Responses to “The Fall of the Berlin Wall”

  1. Too bad he couldn’t just stay away.

    Considering he just got caught red-handed (so to speak) trying to appoint a communist to a position in the United States government, it would have been best if our so-called president had simply stayed away and kept his stupid mouth shut.

    But, then again, that’s true of any situation this sorry ass loser is in.

    Dave Surls (10c957)

  2. Did I wake up in a David Lynch sitcom? Am I dreaming? Did Obama really tell us that the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of humanity’s great victories, is about Barack Obama skin color?

    GOOD GOLLY.

    Dustin (bb61e3)

  3. I don’t thing that constitutes seeing things through the “prism of Obama.” The reference by the Secretary of State to tearing down walls is perfectly appropriate.

    mikeb302000 (6127bb)

  4. I want my country back!
    BO couldn’t go to Berlin, but he can go to Hiroshima. Wonder if he will apologize for the atom bomb?

    LYNNDH (8d8b19)

  5. mike, you are contradicting yourself. You can’t say it’s not an allusion to Obama, while also saying it’s a perfectly valid allusion to Obama. Well, you can, but it’s transparent that you’ll defend Obama no matter what the facts are.

    It’s not even really worth discussing how much less important having a black president is to the Berlin Wall falling. Anyone who doesn’t implicitly get it is probably hell bent on keeping America’s horrible racial wall, the democrat’s gift, standing tall and strong.

    Dustin (bb61e3)

  6. To provide linkage to Dustin’s fact-based assertion, here ya go.

    But, really, Obama had to detract from that whole communist thing. He has communists all over his “advisor” czardom.

    John Hitchcock (3fd153)

  7. The reference by the Secretary of State to tearing down walls is perfectly appropriate.

    Would have been nice if Reagan’s name had come up even once…

    You know, the guy that beat down the USSR, and called out Gorby to tear that silly thing down?

    Jesus you’re a tool.

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  8. President Barack Obama made a surprise video appearance

    Just be glad Biden wasn’t sent. He’d have spent 15 minutes talking about how horrible it was that someone tore down the Great Wall of China…

    Scott Jacobs (d027b8)

  9. The WH doesn’t write her scripts and she isn’t one of his acolytes, so my guess is Clinton was making what she thought was a clever introduction segue and not because she was looking to make this all about Obama.

    apropos of the line, tis better for Obama to have stayed away and be thought of as vain than to have shown up and removed all doubt. Not that there was much doubt…

    steve sturm (369bc6)

  10. mikeb90210 is a loyal sycophant. He will be back in a couple days with another turdlet. Barcky sure does love the sound of his own voice reading from TOTUS, especially when he is reading about himself. How his being of African descent is at all relevant in this context is remarkable. Don’t dare credit Reagan, who actually would be relevant to the topic. Good allah.

    JD (db7dee)

  11. Well, at least he didn’t give a “shout out” to Egon Krenz or some other old Stasi he met in his college days.

    Mike K (addb13)

  12. JD: I’m not defending Obama, so save the bile. It is relevant if you’re using the occasion not so much to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall but as a launching point to knock down the remaining walls (whatever they are). Tone deaf, sure. Ungracious, sure. But not irrelevant to the point he was making.

    steve sturm (369bc6)

  13. For someone who keeps complaining on how the media obsesses about race, Obama sure likes to keep reminding us of his race, how he’s so historic, blah blah blah — even when race has nothing to do with the historic event he’s supposedly commemorating.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  14. steve – I addressed nothing towards you.

    JD (4827fd)

  15. I just watched the video of the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama speeches again. It would have been great if the 3 main political leaders responsible for the tearing down of the wall and the hastening of the demise of communist governments in Europe had been specifically named (i.e., Reagan, Thatcher, and Gorbachev (the last being more “successful” than he even wanted)), and of course Pope John Paul II and Lech Walesa. Hillary’s allusion to “racial” wall was fine. But for his inability to omit reference to himself, Barack’s speech would have been terrific, including his reference to how wonderful it is to note that Germany’s president is from what had been East Germany. Too bad.

    Ira (28a423)

  16. JD: a preemptive request on my part. If unneeded, consider the request withdrawn

    steve sturm (369bc6)

  17. Reagan, Thatcher, and Gorbachev were relevant and topical. Barcky could not set aside the narcissism for even 5 min and refrain from noting that he is the first black President. Post-racial post-partisan my ass.

    steve – I rarely hurl bile your way.

    JD (4827fd)

  18. Ira,
    I agree with you, but Obama and Hillary weren’t speaking with the goal of honoring the demise of the wall and Soviet communism. The event was just a prop for them to aggrandize themselves. And there was no way those lefties would want to be seen giving credit to Reagan and Thatcher. That would be tantamount to admitting Reagan was right.

    Brother Bradley J. Fikes, C.O.R. (0ea407)

  19. JD: I’m not defending Obama, so save the bile.

    His reputation precedes him? Wow, dj, you’re getting pretty well known for being an offensive little man.

    But human destiny is what human beings make of it,” Obama said.”

    Wow, that is so offensive! Now I see why a genius Matt Welch and you guys are so outraged.* It’s offensive to note Angela Merkel is from Eastern Germany! That would have been so predictable in 1989…

    *It’s actually a natural state of both Matt Welch and the American Right.

    timb (449046)

  20. i propose we all lift our voices in praise of Ear Leader…. who, at least *this* time, got the format right on the DVD.

    please join me in a rousing hymn:

    “Hymn, Hymn……. F’ Hymn!”

    and now, back to our regular mocking of the woefully inept blithering idiot that is the president of steve, mike, moron and all the other mouth breathing, booger eating cretins that are under the woeful misapprehension that he was, is, or could ever pretend to be, worthy of any position of trust and responsibility, let alone president.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  21. Clinton’s segue was one of the most artful insert-and-twist shots I’ve ever heard, slicing up Obama and highlighting his egotism with exquisitely vicious praise before breaking off the blade by letting him speak for himself and confirm same.

    Tully (4dce1a)

  22. When I want to hear your opinion, timmah, I will go kick a cat. Go back to defending Caric and GiGi. I need a laugh, you cowardly creepy small pathetic person.

    JD (4827fd)

  23. Obama should have been there in person. And tearing down of the Berlin wall should not be watered down. Obama did not tear down the walls of racial intolerance in America. Americans did it. His being voted into office as the first black President is a result of that wall being torn down. The credit goes to the people who voted him in. Not to him.

    The Emperor (82e13a)

  24. So, Tully, are you subtly suggesting that Hillary is laying the groundwork for gathering a huge number of psychiatrists and psychologists who will publicly state that Obama is too narcissistic to be safely allowed to get the Dems’ nomination for president in 2012?

    Ira (28a423)

  25. Obama did not tear down the walls of racial intolerance in America. Americans did it. His being voted into office as the first black President is a result of that wall being torn down. The credit goes to the people who voted him in. Not to him.

    Excellent analysis Emp!

    Ira (28a423)

  26. redc14: if you weren’t an ignorant fool, you’d know that I didn’t vote for Obama and disagree with close to 100% of what he’s doing. but that would take away from your (what you think) clever jabs, so keep inhabiting the world you live in.

    Tully, I hadn’t considered that perspective. Is she that good?

    steve sturm (369bc6)

  27. No Kenyan birth certificate for the wingnuts. They go mad!

    [note: fished from spam filter. –Stashiu]

    imdw (5b0f4b)

  28. Yeah, he didn’t go.

    And if he went you’d be criticizing him too.

    JEA (9f9fc9)

  29. Who is commenting under Chimperor/lovie’s name?

    JD (959071)

  30. po’ stevie… did i hit too close to home? you claim to oppose him, yet, when i see your drivel here in the threads, you seem to always be looking for a reason to deflect accurate criticism away from your beloved. is it possible what you claim all happened on threads i never got around to reading, because i really can’t keep all you n00bs straight in my twit file.

    maybe you could post some links to comments that show such behavior is just some sort of uber-irony on your part.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  31. by a man of African descent

    The more he focuses on this the more it seems too special, the more it seems like America elected him BECAUSE he is of African descent, not IN SPITE of him being of African descent.

    Obama is not a good orator. If he was, he would realize that understatement is often far more powerful than overstatement.

    At some point we are going to need a president who is more than African.

    Amphipolis (b120ce)

  32. red – I don’t often see things the same way as steve sturm, but you are wrong here, as he is no fan of Barcky. steve and steve sturm are not the same person, and should not be confused. Aim downrange, people.

    JD (959071)

  33. Of course Jackson, Lincoln, Harding and Coolidge were also of African Descent.

    But we leave that out as it doesn’t fit the narrative.

    Don Meaker (9ceac6)

  34. steve and steve sturm are not the same person, and should not be confused.

    Upon reading this, I looked over the archives and I believe I was in error when I gave the above some unnecessary crap yesterday – I had the wrong person in the first place. My apologies to steve sturm.

    Dmac (a964d5)

  35. Woman in charge there, minority in charge here.

    All is well. End of history. Don’t worry, be happy.

    Patricia (b05e7f)

  36. Amphipolis: I think a lot of people DID vote for him on that basis, others despite and still others it didn’t matter one way or the other.

    Dmac: fair enough

    steve sturm (369bc6)

  37. That intro had to kill her. Bill SO promised her she’d be Prez.

    “The WH doesn’t write her scripts and she isn’t one of his acolytes,…”

    I have some swampland in FL to sell ya.

    Bill M (7ab9b8)

  38. The name of the president who said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” went unmentioned in Berlin. But Nelson Mandela’s was not. The whole silly celebration would have made Reagan laugh. He didn’t care who got the credit. He himself said that Gorbachev deserved it. Narcissism wasn’t his thing.

    mhr (cb14f0)

  39. Steve S – it annoys me to no end when other commenters use remarkably similar aliases when posting; good grief, it doesn’t take much imagination to at least try to differentiate yourself.

    Dmac (a964d5)

  40. Somewhere in Kenya, a village has lost its idiot.

    Metallica (e4735c)

  41. Comment by Metallica — 11/10/2009 @ 11:01 am

    …and they are celebrating that fact!

    AD - RtR/OS! (98a208)

  42. aliases? Moi? C’est false.

    steve sturm (369bc6)

  43. mhr, you’re probably right that Reagan would laugh at the petty attempts to scrub him out of history, but it’s still disgusting.

    This isn’t about Mandela, Hillary, or Obama. Sure, they, like all bigwigs, should have a bit to say on this occasion, but for the press to not even inform people of what really occurred is a complete betrayal of their core function. In 20 years, when Bagdad celebrates its freedom, W will probably be ignored by what’s left of the MSM. It seems so crazy to say that, but Reagan was only associated with the cold war when it was obvious to people like Hillary, Obama, and the press that the cold war was unwinnable.

    Dustin (bb61e3)

  44. Bill Bennett’s Novembr November 9, 2009 NRO Corner article The Gates Test includes the comments of two people who were not afraid to give thanks where thanks are due – Chancellor’s Helmut Kohl and Angela Merkal.

    “Two years prior, President Reagan had gone to Berlin and described it as “a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers.”

    Perhaps the most famous words of Reagan’s presidency were those he uttered that summer day in 1987: “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

    And now, within hours of the granting of travel by the East German government, the German citizens were, themselves, taking pickaxes to the scar.

    I give you the words of two German Chancellors: Helmut Kohl and Angela Merkel. When the wall came down, Helmut Kohl told President George H. W. Bush: “Without the U.S., this day would not have been possible. Tell your people that.” And last week, Angela Merkel said this:

    I think of John F. Kennedy, who won the hearts of the Berliners, when, during his visit in 1961, after the wall had been built, he reached out to the desperate citizens of Berlin by saying, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” I think of Ronald Reagan, who, far earlier than most, clearly saw the sign of the times and, standing in front of the Brandenburg Gate, already in 1987, called out, “Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” This appeal shall remain forever in my heart.

    I thank George Herbert Walker Bush for the trust he placed in Germany and then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl, offering something of immeasurable value to us Germans already in May 1989: partnership in leadership. What a generous offer 40 years after the end of the Second World War.”

    PS: The real example of what the fall of the world means 20 years later is Angela Merkal, a subject in Communist GDR, is now German Chancellor also representing the right of center party.

    PPS. The German Communists didn’t go away. They run the Berlin government.

    davod (bce08f)

  45. “ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
    ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
    ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
    ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
    ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
    ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
    ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
    ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
    ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
    ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
    ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
    ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
    ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
    ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
    ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
    ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME”

    Barack Hussein Obama’s speech to the World

    HeavenSent (01a566)

  46. ‘The name of the president who said, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” went unmentioned in Berlin. But Nelson Mandela’s was not.’

    Talk about irony. Mandela’s ANC has a more or less permanent political alliance with the South African Communist Party and the ANC’s primary financial backer was always the Soviet Union, as long as it existed.

    People like Mandela and his backers are the ones who built the wall in the first place.

    Dave Surls (68aa16)

  47. Excellent analysis Emp!

    Comment by Ira — 11/10/2009 @ 6:37 am
    Just saying it as it is, Ira. Thanks anyway. 🙂

    The Emperor (82e13a)

  48. Why do you suppose Obutthole has so many Communists,
    Maoists, and Marxists in his administration?

    http://animal-farm.us/change/tear-down-the-wall-793

    Foxwood (55ff6b)

  49. Someone above stated that the WH doesn’t write SecState Clinton’s speeches.
    That could be true, but they do reserve the right to review and approve the public utterances of all Cabinet Officers – in advance.
    For Sec.Clinton to make a major speech not cleared in advance by the WH has all the likelihood of Rush running for political office as a Democrat (though that would be an interesting sight).

    AD - RtR/OS! (11f16f)


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